Thiamin status in normal and malnourished children in Jamaica

Abstract

1. Thiamin status has been measured using the erythrocyte transketolase (EC 2.2.1.1) assay in twenty-eight normal children and in twenty-five severely-malnourished children throughout the course of recovery.2. Subclinical thiamin deficiency was found in 7% of the normal children and 36% of the malnourished children on admission.3. There was no significant association between thiamin status and oedema, stunting or wasting, history of breast-feeding, pattern of weaning, age or sex.4. Five malnourished children, who died, all had a normal thiamin status on admission; however, two developed biochemical evidence of thiamin deficiency preterminally.

Low blood thiamine concentrations in children upon admission to the intensive care unit: risk factors and prognostic significance

“…Nevertheless, no significant difference in thiamine concentrations was shown between infants and older children. Malnutrition is associated with an increased risk of B-complex vitamin deficiency (23). However, in the current study, no significant association between low blood thiamine concentrations and malnutrition was shown.…”

Clinically Unapparent Infantile Thiamin Deficiency in Vientiane, Laos

“…An autopsy study 100 years ago demonstrated that many infants with post-mortem evidence for beriberi were misdiagnosed with other conditions [23]. That clinically important but clinically unapparent thiamin deficiency may occur has been suggested in China [19], [24], [25], the Philippines [23], Australia [26], United Kingdom [27], Thailand [28], in Africa [19], [29], Jamaican children with malnutrition [30], the critically ill [31], in psychiatric patients [32] and in the disadvantaged [33] and elderly [34]. In rural southern Laos 30% of older children and adults presenting with malaria had evidence for biochemical thiamin deficiency [35].…”

Nutritional and other types of oedema, albumin, complex carbohydrates and the interstitium – a response to Malcolm Coulthard's hypothesis: Oedema in kwashiorkor is caused by hypo-albuminaemia

“…146 Although thiamine deficiency occurs much more frequently in malnourished children than in controls, Hailemariam et al could not relate this to the occurrence of oedema in malnutrition. 147 In Nigeria, 84% of malnourished children in one series had biochemical thiamine deficiency. 148 In some populations, thiamine deficiency may contribute to the oedema of kwashiorkor.…”